Attacks on Crimean Bridge: Strengthening Ukraine's negotiating position

The Crimean Bridge is one of the Russian Federation's most critical infrastructure sites, used by the Kremlin to sustain its aggression against Ukraine, especially in the southern regions. Russian propagandists, who are now reporting on disruptions near the bridge where traffic had to be halted, still don’t fully grasp what happened.

Was it that the bridge’s supports were rigged with explosives planted in advance? Was it an attack by unmanned Ukrainian naval boats? Or were there unidentified divers involved, possibly in placing the charges or even remotely detonating them?

The Crimean Bridge may soon face more such attacks, which could eventually lead to its destruction. It’s worth noting that traffic in Sevastopol Bay was also suspended yesterday.

Sevastopol has long become a symbol of Russian failure. The Russian Black Sea Fleet has suffered defeats in Crimea throughout most of its history. And it now holds a permanent place in history, marked by disgrace.

In the current Russian-Ukrainian war, the fleet maintained its tradition by having to withdraw from Ukrainian Sevastopol to Russia’s Novorossiysk. From there, it continues to play a destabilizing role in the Black Sea. Still, Russian criminals in naval uniforms lack the strategic advantages the Ukrainian bays once gave them.

The Crimean Bridge remains a legitimate military target for Ukraine’s Defense Forces.

First, because it was built without Ukraine’s consent in Ukrainian territorial waters — after Russia, under the leadership of the criminal Putin, carried out the occupation and annexation of Ukrainian land. This violated international law and even Russia’s own constitution, which Putin, backed by his chauvinistic and deluded population, happily ignored.

Second, because the bridge is used to move supplies for another criminal terrorist organization — the so-called armed forces of the Russian Federation. These forces aren’t defending Russia; they are used by Putin and his circle to seize foreign territory and terrorize civilians in Crimea. Local residents have become hostages of Russian aggression not only since 2014, but from the moment a Russian naval base remained on Ukrainian territory. That base has long served as a tool of terrorism and instability not just in Crimea, but across the entire Black Sea region.

This is why the Russian Black Sea Fleet must eventually be eliminated, at least within Ukrainian territorial waters. And of course, the Crimean Bridge cannot remain a supply route for Russia’s military, especially as Moscow clearly still clings to hopes of advancing deeper into southern Ukraine.

Russia has no intention of limiting itself to occupying just part of the Kherson region, which remains under the control of its invading forces.

It’s clear that Moscow’s ambitions go far beyond that, and it’s equally clear that the support system for occupation troops and the collaborationist power structure in Crimea, which relies heavily on the infrastructure of the Crimean Bridge, must be confidently and effectively cut off. To show that the Russian Federation has no real control over events in the occupied Ukrainian territories and won't have it going forward.

And as we know, cutting Crimea off from Russia, at least in terms of infrastructure, is even easier than doing so with other Ukrainian regions under occupation — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia — where Russia is still fighting, including by using the roads that run over this vile bridge.

Of course, this latest operation is another reminder to the Russians of one more humiliation — one they try hard to downplay in their own media space.

The destruction of Russian aircraft at airfields — aircraft used to regularly bomb peaceful Ukrainian cities and towns, killing women and children. One of many crimes that define the role and purpose of Russia’s armed forces, and, it seems, the Russian state itself. A state which, as we’ve all seen over the past three years, functions more like a terrorist organization — pretending to be a government to dodge responsibility for the atrocities its uniformed and non-uniformed citizens commit with open joy.

So in principle, we can say, using the language of Russian politics, that Ukraine’s negotiating position has been strengthened. If, that is, there ever comes a time when real negotiations begin between Russia and Ukraine for a ceasefire on the frontlines, or for ending the Russian-Ukrainian war, which Putin still seems to enjoy.

But even this enjoyment is starting to turn bitter for the Russian president — the man who believes that killing people somehow extends his age and gives confidence that his regime, always most popular with Russians in the most aggressive times,  has little to fear from where history is heading.

When Russian leaders see their own aircraft or key infrastructure destroyed, symbols of their aggressive power, the people around them, and even the citizens themselves, filled with hatred and rage, begin to question whether this tsar is still fit to rule. And whether it’s time to find someone even more brutal, someone who won’t allow strategic targets like planes and bridges to be humiliated. After all, ordinary Russians are willing to live in poverty and hopelessness just to keep these symbols intact.

And Putin knows full well: to avoid losing more high-value targets, symbols of Russian aggression, it might finally be time to consider stopping the attacks on Ukraine. And to think seriously about the ceasefire that U.S. President Donald Trump has been calling for month after month without any results so far.

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About the author. Vitaliy Portnykov, journalist, the National Shevchenko Prize laureate

The editorial staff does not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.